


Christmas Lights

by champagnedresses



Series: 2014 Christmas Drabbles [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Lights, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 18:50:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2822468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/champagnedresses/pseuds/champagnedresses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Henry bakes up a storm and Elsa decorates, Emma and Hook go on a Christmas date to see the town's lights. Admiring the works of townsfolk such as Granny, Ruby, Doctor Hopper, and Geppetto leads Hook to think of the perfect gift for Emma.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Lights

The smell of Christmas cookies and the sound of carols swirl through the Charming’s apartment. The small space is overfilled with too many decorations and too many people, but no one minds. Baby Neal coos along as Snow sings to him. David dutifully rotates trays of already prepared cookies in and out of the oven, only managing not to burn them because of the three timers Henry helps him set for every batch.

There’s a knock at the door that hushes the busy room, the cheerful babble that was there a moment before echoes gently in Emma’s mind as her heart flutters. There’s a small giggle from Elsa’s corner of the room, but as soon as Emma looks over, she’s back to work on her snowflakes (Paper crafts, this time. Snow had a fit over the real ones she tried to adorn the apartment with.), not even a smile on her concentrated face. David’s cookie timers buzz as Emma goes to open the door, and he cartoonishly clamors to shut them off, knocking a—thankfully empty—tray to the ground, and apologizing profusely when Neal begins to cry in response.

Emma rolls her eyes, but smiles as she opens the door, revealing a smoldering-eye Hook. “Merry Christmas, love,” he greets.

“It’s not Christmas for three more days!” Henry informs, his voice carrying over the kitchen counter as he kneels on the floor to clean up David’s mess. Snow and David relax as Neal sniffles an end to his crying and turn their attention to their other child, who also looks like she could use a bit of calming as she flutters brightly.

“Don’t jump the gun around Henry,” Emma warns. “He’s very enthusiastic about the advent count-down this year.”

“Noted,” he says with a nod.

Henry’s head pops up to announce, “Christmas cookies are the activity for today.”

“They smell delicious. I’ll have to barter for some later,” Hook says with a wink.

“They won’t be cheap,” Henry warns.

“With all this work,” David mumbles, “They had better not be.”

Emma flips her hair aside as she puts on her jacket. “Ready?” she asks.

Hook smiles at her, gesturing for her to lead the way out. “I’ll find something good to trade for those cookies, kid,” he says in parting.

“Don’t be out too late!” David reminds them as they walk out.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take a warmer coat?” Snow calls.

“Kiss his face!” Elsa chimes in, resulting in glares from both David and Snow.

“We’d better go before Elsa starts giving us other suggestions and my parents vehemently protest them,” Emma says.

“Good call.”

As they walk out the door, he takes her hand in his and doesn’t let go for practically the entire evening. She doesn’t let go either, though she wonders more than once if she should, just to wipe her sweaty palm off on her pants. Holding his hand makes her nervous and giddy all at once, like she’s back to being seventeen again. There’s a comfort in him, too, though. As they weave through the town in search of the best Christmas lights, there’s no nervous babble or embarrassing slip ups. It’s just the two of them and the shining decorations of the town.

The ones at Granny’s are spectacular. Purple and blue shine amid the tastefully placed red and green. She thinks they must be Ruby’s work. The elegance reminds her of the sketches and paintings she’s seen strewn in Ruby’s bedroom. Besides, Granny’s never been one for subtly. Last year she had a glowing snowman on the roof, and Grumpy complained for weeks about hurting his back when he helped her put it up. Killian’s fond of Regina’s lights—tiny strings that hang down like icicles from the tall rooftop. Emma’s more fond of Doctor Hopper’s style, with his classic and simple string of red and green bulbs.

When they get to Geppetto’s house, Killian stops. The house sits in a dark corner of the street, nearly overtaken by the decorations all around it. But inside the tiny front window is a single lit candle. Killian seems pensive as they stare at the candle and Emma stays quiet. He seems as if he might tell her something if she just stays still enough. He doesn’t say anything at the house, but as they walk on through the snow, he starts to talk.

“We didn’t have a lot of money when I was really little. Not a lot of presents—or anything really—in the house. But every winter when my dad would go away for work for a few weeks, he’d give my mom a candle and as soon as he was away, she’d light it.” Emma pictures the candle flickering in Killian’s childhood home as a faceless man trudges away in the snow. She wonders for a moment about Killian’s childhood and his parents. He’s never mentioned them before. But she tucks those questions away as he continues.

“It wasn’t a passionate thing, really. Not a ‘love conquers all’ or ‘love burns bright’ or ‘this will lead me home to you.’ It was a symbol of their togetherness. They made the fire together. It didn’t work without the both of them contributing to it. Their love wasn’t written in the stars or decided by fate. It was chosen by them and worked on to make it continue.” It’s such a stark contrast to her parent’s ‘I will always find you’ love and it makes Emma hopeful.

“Christmas reminds me of that,” Killian concludes. “Working together to make something special.”

She doesn’t want to diminish the feeling between them those words have left by talking, so Emma squeezes his hand and rests her cheek on his shoulder for a moment.

Their winding through town leads them back to Emma’s apartment eventually. They smile at each other in front of her door before he finally breaks the gaze to kiss her goodnight. “Sleep well, Emma,” he whispers into her ear.

Hours later, a buzzing under her pillow wakes Emma up and she thinks that it can’t possibly be morning yet. She pulls herself out of bed anyway and into the kitchen where she scoops chocolate ganache into a steaming mug of milk. Sugar will do just as well as caffeine around Christmas. Leaning against the kitchen counter, she carefully sips her hot chocolate. As she does, she realizes that the apartment is filled with nothing but background noises. She can hear the clock ticking, David’s heavy breathing, and the hum of the refrigerator, but there is no sign of waking family members. She reaches for her phone and realizes it was a text that woke her up—not her alarm. ~~~~

The text is from Killian. She’s surprised at how quickly he learned to text. It took her months to teach him how to call her, but he’s picked up texting in less than a week. He claims that “buttons are easier than bloody quills” but she thinks he’s adjusting to technology more than he’d like to admit. 

_“Left a present outside your door. Merry Christmas, love.”_

Her eyes squint with a smile at his words. She has to stop herself from nosily shoving everything out of her way to get to the front door. When she opens it, she sees that a tall white candle stands unlit in the center of the welcome mat.  She crouches down beside it, concentrating hard by taking deep breaths. She wants to get this right. She twirls her fingers across the wick and the candle lights. For her, small magic is harder than big magic. But for him, she could do anything. Seeing that burning candle is the best present she could ever hope for.


End file.
